Noodles

3 September 2018 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged 3.1.3 Groceries

Finally managed to score some plastic free noodles!Its back to the wonderful Leeds Market. I love it. Its a great place to buy #plasticfree almost everything. Read a review here

And its been made all the better by the opening of the JarTree where you can take your own packaging and buy just about everything you might ever need, plastic free.
Address: Leeds Kirkgate Market, Unit BS1, Leeds LS2 7HY

Phone: 07470 033404 https://www.facebook.com/thejartree/

You can see a picture diary here of all the products stocked including NOODLES!!!!

Or visit the website for more. They are continually updating the product list here:
http://www.thejartree.co.uk/store-product-list.html

And they welcome all suggestions in store too!

Food & Drink

Here is a list of food types category with purchase details

Don’t Live In Leeds? More Plastic Free Food Shops Here.

There are a growing number of plasticfree/refill shops in the U.K. Here are our latest finds.

Buy On Line
None near you?. Sad face? Don’t worry. There are and increasing number of shops selling plastic free food online. And they send them out in plasticless packages.

You can find others, HERE

N.B.
lines changes, products get removed. For more information why not ask the Plastic Is Rubbish FB group for updates. They are a great source of tidbits, personal experience and the latest news. Why not join them and share the plastic free love x

And before you go…

If you have found the #plasticfree information useful, please consider supporting us. It all goes to financing the project (read more here) or

Extracts

1 August 2016 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged 00 2016, 3.1.3 Groceries, 3.2.4 make 2 Comments

Did you know that simply by steeping herbs, peel and fruit in alcohol you can make extracts? I discovered this quite by accident when researching what to do with an excess of leggy lavender from a rampant bush. I found a post about lavender vodka and because I refuse to follow recipes, I used far too much lavender. Rather than a delicately flavoured beverage I ended up with a murkey liquid which, lucky for me, turns out to be an extract.

Make Your Own

Extracts are strongly flavoured plant extracts. They used to flavour drinks and food. They are a great way of using up a glut of something and preserving it for use later in the year. They are incredibly easy to make and have to be the easiest way of preserving.

The alcohol used is usually vodka and the general rule of thumb seems to be to buy mid range. Too cheap and the nasty flavour intrudes, too expensive and it is a waste of good vodka. Some recipes also suggest rum.

The method is the same.

Take the herb put it in a jar cover it with vodka and leave in a cool dark place remembering to shake occasionally. Time steeping varies with the herb and the recipe.
Once done you strain off the liquid through a sieve and them some fine cotton.
Here are some steeping guidelines.

Lavender – flowers steep for 4 weeks

Vanilla use the beans steep for two months.

Mint leaves one to two months.

Citrus Extracts use the rind of the fruit but not the bitter white pith. Use organic unwaxed fruit. steep for 5 to 6 weeks.

Cinnamon bark (sticks) steep for two weeks.

Berries 6 to 8 weeks or longer.

Apparently extracts will keep for 3-5 years.

Interesting articles
Three main reasons for using alcohol

Tomato ketchup

23 September 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink, 4.3 My Projects Tagged 3.1.3 Fruit & Veg, 3.1.3 Groceries, 3.2.4 cook book, 4.3 waste less live more week

Today’s action is to ‘borrow it’. How many things do you own which you hardly ever use? We’re asking people to be resourceful by borrowing rather than buying. Whether it’s joining your local library, signing up to a neighbourhood borrowing scheme or even borrowing a dog (yes, that’s right, there are websites that allow you to do this), borrowing is a great way to access what you need and meet others in the process.

So here goes…. borrow it ketchup using yesterdays puree
Got the ketchup recipes from the internet. I used them more as a guide because I was using what I had in and what I could borrow!
So it said apple vinegar but I only have balsamic vinegar and white vinegar. White seemed a bit harsh so I went with balsamic.
I used white instead of brown sugar as I cannot source plastic free brown sugar.
I borrowed the spices and they did have plastic lids BUT I can get them plastic free. I didn’t because I am on holiday living in a van. To buy a load of spices to make some experimental sauce seemed daft. So…I used those listed below because they were the ones I could borrow.

Here is my ketchup recipe

Splash of olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped medium
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup tomato purée – hand made yesterday!
1/5 cup sugar
25 ml balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon all spice
Salt and pepper

Fried the onions added the spices cooked it up and blended it.
I would be the first to admit that this not quite tomato ketchup. Its the wrong colour for a start! Thats the balsamic vinegar for you.
The texture isnt quite silky enough either.
But it is sauce and it tastes really good! I can’t quite believe it! It is tomatoey and vinegary and sweet.
It will last a month in the fridge apparently but if I was doing it at home I would freeze it in small batches.

So impressed with my homemaking skills.

Find more recipes in the plastic free cookbook

Tomatos – an alternative to tinned

6 September 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged 3.1.3 Fruit & Veg, 3.1.3 Groceries, 3.2.4 cook book 4 Comments

I learnt to cook out of tins. I don’t mean as a student; I mean when I was growing up we ate out of tins, a lot. One of the staples in the cupboard was tinned tomatoes. They were used for everything. Even when we had a cooked breakfast it would come with tinned tommies.
I don’t know if tomatoes were scarce in Manchester in the 70s, just a seasonal treat or wether we preferred it that way. All I know is that the fresh tomato was rarely seen in our house.
What’s taught is whats known and as an adult I thought tinned tomatoes were an essential ingredient in bolognese, sauces and stews. Consequently the thought of giving up tinned tomatoes as part of our plastic boycott, (Tin cans of food – they are nearly all plastic lined), was scary. But I needn’t have worried.

I can of course buy Passata which is posh tinned tomatoes in a glass bottle . But those bottle have they will have plastic lined metal lids and are expensive so better and easier to use fresh tomatoes.

Better still I can make my own tomato base – useful if you have a lot of tomatoes and you need to something with them….. or I can use them uncooked. Who knew.

Pre-Cooked

Heres how
Get a lot of tomatoes. Go buy a big box full. Read up about plastic free veggies here.
Or grow some.

Wash them and pack them in a pot.
You can do them whole or half and cut the hearts out first. Cover them with a lid

Bake them in the oven or on the the top of the stove till they go squishy.

Sqeeze in innards out, pull the peel off.
freeze till needed
Nice additions – herbs when baking and or a dollop of tomato puree when freezing.
NB I reuse my PLA plastic compostable pots as freezer pots. So far only the lids have failed me.

Use Fresh As Is

Now while this is a good and useful thing to do, handy to have in and a great way to store a glut, it is not always necessary. Yes, since then I have found that you can add fresh tomatoes to whatever it is your cooking!
I know! This is how I do it
Cut them in half then remove the white bit out
Steam them on top of the frying veg
When the are cooked it is easy to peel the skins off.
Then you can mash them down to make sauce.
Just as good as tinned – honest.

Find more recipes in the plastic free cookbook.

Find plastic free fruit and veg here.

Fruit & Vegetables

N.B.

lines changes, products get removed. For more information why not ask the Plastic Is Rubbish FB group for updates. They are a great source of tidbits, personal experience and the latest news. Why not join them and share the plastic free love x

And before you go…

If you have found the #plasticfree information useful, please consider supporting us. It all goes to financing the project (read more here) or

Rice – brown, white & arborio

8 July 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged 3.1.3 Groceries

Rice is back on the menu. We used to buy our rice loose at Khadims but they stopped doing that. For a while rice was a plastic packed essential we refused to give up. You can see the plastic food we eat for more on this. But now….

White Rice

We found this in Lidles. Rice in a cardboard box that is reasonably priced and good enough. Sadly they only do white. You can also get a range of other rices from

Weigh and Save in Penzance. which means you can probably find it in other such shops (list here)
Wholefood Market

Brown Rice

I found brown rice in the Weigh and Save in Penzance. which means you can probably find it in other such shops (list here)

They also sell it in Wholefood Market

Arborio Rice

Sold loose in Wholefood Market

Now I can try this Jamie recipe

Remember to take your own bags……

Oil Vegetable Cooking Refill

3 July 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Disposables & Reusables, 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged 3.1.2 refill, 3.1.3 Groceries, 3.1.3 Loose Food, 3.1.3 Oils & Spreads, 5 Content Veiw 10 Comments

Vegetable oil is difficult to source plastic free. Buy in glass and the metal caps will have a little plasticized disc or plastic liner on inside and maybe a plastic seal. Plus the bottle will almost always have a plastic pouring widget in the bottle top.Like I can’t pour oil out of a bottle??? Buy in cans and they have a plastic lid, perhaps a handle and the can is of course lined with plastic. You can read more here

On Tap
But if you are very lucky you might find a place that sell oils on tap that lets you use your own refillable bottle. Do you need me to explain that? They sell oil from the can and you take your own bottle, which they refill with oil.

Whahey plastic free oil!

That said in 2015 Defra banned ‘On tap’ olive oil. The following is taken form their website….”These oils mustn’t be sold ‘on tap’ in their pure form: extra virgin olive oil, virgin olive oil, olive oil composed of refined olive oils and virgin olive oils, olive pomace oil. Today (2016) seems oil is back on tap. So, for now you can buy olive oil on tap from a variety of store.

Using your own bottle?
It would seem that some stores allow you to refill your own bottle. Whole Food Market do and I refilled my glass bottle there. But I cannot vouch for the others listed below! Any information on the subject is much appreciated.

Oil refills in the U.K.

The butchers St Agnes, Devon
Wholefood Supermarket Cheltenham & London

Demijohn – Victoria St, Edinburgh refill oil & vinegar (and spirits at Demijohn).

Olive oil Stoneygate, Leicester http://www.deliflavour.net/may also do refills but not checked
Sheena Hatton Claremont Farm in Wirral (oils and vinegars) and Spar in Llanfyllin.Åsa PamphilonHoland andBarrer in Chelmsford.” I havent yet refilled but it is clearly two different prices for their bottle and oil/vinegar or just a refill so I assume I will have no problems.

Or you could try lard. Other greasy options and ways to buy plastic reduced oils and spreads can be found here the edible oil index here.
And everything you need to know about fatty acids here

N.B.

And before you go…

If you have found the #plasticfree information useful, please consider supporting us. It all goes to financing the project (read more here) or

Whole Food Market U.K. Chain

21 May 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.2.3 Supermarkets & Chains Tagged 3.1.3 bakery, 3.1.3 beans & pulses, 3.1.3 dried fruit and nuts, 3.1.3 Fruit & Veg, 3.1.3 Groceries, 3.1.3 herbs & spices & seasonings, 3.1.3 Meat & Fish, 3.6 #P-fU.K. Directory, 5 Content Veiw 8 Comments

Rushing through the Cheltenham suburbs, had to buy wine so lurched into the huge carpark of an out of town shopping experience. By which I mean a cluster of huge supermarkets snarling at each other across an enormous expanse of tarmac dotted with a huddle of tiny trees at least one of which was sporting a plastic bag. Village Boy leapt out of the van and bounded off shouting, white hare like, about time. I was following rather more sedately when Whole Foods Market caught my eye. I had never seen one before and I admit I snorted at the messages plastered on the windows…. but I went to have a look anyway.

I have numerous issues with supermarkets which I won’t go into here. Suffice to say I use them when I have to but they deeply irritate, even anger me. The packaging, the waste, the plastic are just a few of the niggles.

And yet, I was about to have a supermarket epiphany. Yes Whole Foods Market are my idea of supermarket heaven. If there have to be supermarkets, then let them be like this.

They have

Unwrapped lettuce and unpackaged olives…
Loose grains, rice beans and pulses
Loose tea & coffee beans.
Loose spices, herbs, dried fruits and nuts
A peanut butter making machine
oil on tap so you can refill your bottle

All of the above you can buy by weight in your own containers. This is common in the U.S. and Australia. They have bulk stores or bulk foods aisle in a grocery store. In this case it doesn’t necessarily mean buying huge amounts but buying loose and unpackaged.

BYO Bags

While the carrier bags at the check-out are paper, the rest of the packaging, the produce bags and bottles they provide, are all plastic so you would have to take your own compostable pots and reusable bags. Easily done – find out how here.

Tare

The weight of the bag will make a difference at checkout in the price per weight. The tare weight is the weight of the empty container. Whole Food Markets have weighing machines that allow you to do this yourself. It is very easy.

Lush

Whole Foods Market as it name suggests also has a organic eco criteria. This isn’t some giant Weigh & Save shop but a plush, lush shopping experience

Stores

Since then I have taken the opportunity to visits as many Whole Food Markets as I can.

Find A Store

They have stores in London, Cheltenham and Glasgow

I have taken photo journals which I have posted up on Facebook. Follow the links for

Please check that stock is available before you visit – the photos are quite old now and NOT ALL STORES ARE THE SAME. For instance Glasgow does Ecover refills Cheltenham doesn’t.

About

This American company have recently opened some flagship stores in the UK It is funky, good looking and challenging. It boasts impressive eco credentials. I wanted to know more so I emailed ahead asking if it would be OK for me to take photos next time I visited. Not only did they say yes, but Renata Rees, Marketing Team Leader, offered to meet me. An offer I eagerly accepted. You can read about it here

Find more loose food shops here

Oil Vegetable

3 June 2012 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged 3.1.3 Groceries, 3.1.3 Oils & Spreads 2 Comments

Pre-packed oils always have a plastic element – if it comes in bottles it will have a plastic lined cap and probably a plastic pouring widget in the bottle top. Buy it in cans and there will be more plastic caps plus the cans are plastic lined. Read more here.

If you are lucky you might find a place that sell oils on tap. Then you may be able to use your own refillable bottle.

Glass Bottles
Buy in glass and the metal caps will have a little plasticized disc or plastic liner on inside and maybe a plastic seal. Plus the bottle will almost always have a plastic pouring widget in the bottle top.Like I can’t pour oil out of a bottle???
Buy
You can buy these oils from every supermarket in the UK. They can be expensive though.

In Cans
And who can afford to use such expensive treats for making chips? Not me. I need a plastic free source of cheap veg oil. Thought cans might be the answer. sadly not. The cans have a plastic lid and handle and are almost certainly lined with plastic. Nearly all cans are to prevent the cans corroding. You can read more here
On the plus side the can has a high recycle value.
Buy
If I need vegetable oil in quantities I go with the can which I buy from . Khadims the Asian Supermarket on Blacker Road Huddersfield. Many supermarkets also do oil in cans.

On Tap
If you are lucky you might find a place that sell oils on tap. Then you may be able to use your own refillable bottle.
Buy
You can find a U.K. wide list of places that sell oil on tap here

Where From & Made How?

Other things to consider when choosing which oil to buy are product miles and how your oil was extracted.

Product Miles

Product miles are of course how far a product has to travel and the environmental costs attached. The carbon cost of importing heavy glass bottles full of olive oil is high. If choosing an imported oil you might prefer to buy a can over a bottle. Cans are lighter and costs less to transport.
Or you could choose a locally sourced oil. The only oil grown in the U.K. in any quantities is rapeseed oil. You can get this in glass bottles in store or 5 liter cans online. More about rapeseed oil here.

Petrol In My Vegetable Oil? Most commercially produced oils are solvent extracted. This involves a chemical solvent like the petroleum-derived hexane and heat up to 500 degrees. Once the oil is dissolved, the solvent is removed by distillation.
This technique is used for most of the “newer” oils such as soybean and cannola oils. Many of these products do not give up their oil easily, it has to be forced from them. Cold pressed oils are a better option. You can read more here.

About oils, waxes and butters

Vinegar Apple – shop bought, live or home-made

1 December 2009 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged 3.1.3 Groceries

Apple Vinegar

is good as a hair conditioner and skin toner
It can also be used for cleaning
And almost everything else..

Live Vinegar

This still contains the mother Mother of vinegar a cloudy monstrous swamp of acetic acid bacteria and cellulose. This is created during the fermentation process of alcohol into vinegar
The ‘mother’ is alive and is made up from bacteria, enzymes and living nutrients.
The presence of the mother shows that the vinegar has not been processed or filtered.
It is the mother that gives vinegar all its claimed health benefits.
You can also use it to make more vinegar

Make Vinegar

Making your own apple cider vinegar is a great way to use up apple peel, even cores, save you money and give you super-smug green points.

Here are a selection of recipes

One that looks perfect for van life

And here are lots of different recpies and here is wikipedias recipe

Buy Vinegar

Tescos do an apple vinegar in a glass bottle with a metal screw top lid. Apart from the little plasticised disc in the lid they are as plastic free as you can get.

You could try health food shops for live vinegar.

Buy Live Vinegar On Line

I have not used live vinegar or bought from these suppliers. The information below is a guide only.

you can buy organic live vinegar in glass bottle from Bobbys Healthy Shop .

Our ACV has been produced using the same traditional methods for over 150 years. The apples are grown without the use of any chemicals, so no fertilisers or pesticides. It is completely organic and is produced to standards which easily surpass the requirements from the organic associations. We believe in true organic farming.

Amazon (Read about our relationship here )


Braggs Organic Apple Cider Vinegar 946 ml £11.00	Raw Health Organic Cider Vinegar Unpasteuri… £13.74	Apple Cider Vinegar Tonic with ‘Mother’ – 1… £8.85

Biona Cider Vinegar with Mother 5000ml £14.36	Dynamic Health Laboratories Organic Apple C… £3.72 – £22.10	Pegasus Health Apple Cider Vinegar 5 L (Raw… £14.50

Pulses & beans – Index

13 June 2008 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged 3.1.3 beans & pulses, 3.1.3 Groceries, 3.2.6. buy local buy British

You can buy beans in a number of ways.
Dried loose or ready packed
Tins
Glass Jars

Lentils and pulses Are usually sold dried, loose or ready packed.

Loose

Dried beans can be bought loose
As befits a hippy supermarket Whole Food Markets do a good range.

Scoop and save shops Usually do red lentils and a limited range of beans.

Check out the loose food index for more loose food shops.

Loose Food A to Z
Find out if a shop near you sells bulk food loose. This is stuff that that normally comes plastic packaged ie rice, pasta and salt. And yes these shops do exist in the U.K. There’s just not many of them.
Heres alist of towns with shops selling loose food.

Packaging

While these shops provide bags and they are almost always plastic ones. You will need to take your own plastic-free /reusable bags.

Online

Did you now you can get homegrown British beans, lentils (soon) and even Quinoa. Many of them organically grown….Introducing Hodmedod’s
“Using recyclable packaging is something we feel very strongly about and we are avoiding plastic where we can. We are aiming for all plastic-free packaging.
So far all our 500g packs of dried pulses and grains are packed in compostable plant based cellophane.”

They sell beans, grains and pulses. See the full list HERE

Buying Plastic Wrapped

But if none of these work for you try to buy products that are wrapped in polythene rather than film as this is an easily recycled plastic unlike film which is not. More details here.

Internet store Goodness can supply you with a whole load of beans and other dried stuff in polythene bags. Please note, many of the companies featured on their website DO sell stuff in film BUT the 3kg bulk buy bags in the Goodness range, (their own range), always come in polythene bags.

At least that has been my experience but you should double check..

Their onward packaging is all recyclable or biodegradable.

Goodness Range ( that I have bought – there are lots more

Kidney Beans
Black Eye
Lentils Yellow
Lentils Green

Tins

Many places sell tins of ready cooked beans.

Glass

You can find beans and chickpeas in glass jars in some Asian shops and polish delis.

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Tag Archives: 3.1.3 Groceries